Balance?

Routine, Routine, wherefore art thou Routine?  Man, if you’re stuck in a rut and need to shake things up a bit, may I suggest a household bout with the flu, close on the heels of acquiring a new puppy?  Actually, you probably already know these tricks – at the least the flu part – given how many of my son’s classmates have also been down for the count.  None of us have felt great for almost three weeks now, with strange appetites and extreme tiredness.  The result?  (My definition of) moderation – cooking and eating relatively healthy food as well as accomplishing some form exercise most days of the week – has been chased right out the window.  (Not a shocker given my sparse postings here…ahem…)   Suffice it to say, we’ve eaten more take-out and Amy’s Organics bean-n-rice burritos in the last few weeks than I’d like to admit.  Hopefully, we’ve turned a corner and are on our way back to fighting form.

And a normal routine!

I realize that I should follow that intro with an interesting, healthy recipe, an example of how to jump back in.  But I got nothin’.  The dinner plan for tonight is what we often have on Wild Wednesday nights, given limited time and wildly varying tastes (on Wild Wednesdays both kids have religious school, I take care of my three-year old nephew Cooper, and he and my sister Stacey join us for dinner).  Pasta, baby, make-your-own pasta.  I vary the shape (I’m currently digging a Whole Foods’ brand of conchiglie/shells).  And the texture and spiciness of the quick tomato sauce (smooth and thin, chunky and thick, sometimes with a little cream stirred in).  And the add-in vegetables (tonight will be sauteed Swiss chard, other nights a pan of zucchini and mushrooms, or garlicky broccoli, or thinly sliced fennel and onions…).  And the protein source (pulled apart rotisserie chicken, simple ground beef, I’ve even set out strips of frittata, or spicy beans, or sauteed tofu, although those are less popular options).  You get the picture.  It’s a relatively easy way to put a fast, nutritious dinner on the table; plus, if you go easy on the pasta, and load up on the veggies and lean protein, you can even call it “moderate.”

Right now, that’s the best I can do.